Question Number: 30535

Law 14 - Penalty kick 6/24/2016

Russell of Sydney, Australia asks...

Regarding the point about the Croatian keeper coming off the line early and not being pulled up for it, I totally understand that as Ref McHugh indicates - a very large percentage of keepers infringe the rules (as do the defenders and attackers encroach). Ref Sowa indicates if a keeper comes off his line more than 1 yd, he wants to know about it. So we are to assume if Ref Sowa was the CR in this match, he would have expected his AAR to let him know - as the keeper was half way to the goal area box - how is that not 'blatant' ? How is it 'trifling' ! This is my point here. This was an instance far beyond the understood/accepted/typical movement we all allow. With all due respect, my jaw dropped when I read that Ref Sowa said he didn't see anything wrong with the keepers movement. Lets flip the scenario. If the kicker ran in, stopped at the ball (not feinted in the run up, but actually stopped at the ball) paused for one full second, then kicked the ball - would you call it back if it went in. I'd suggest you would. Again, the point here is that this was well beyond what we all (including myself) generally allow. Ref Dawson often refers to the ref who called a foul that everybody seemed to miss. That ref had the strength to call what he had seen. In this penalty, we all had seen what happened.

Answer provided by Referee Gene Nagy

Russel,

Vítor Melo Pereira, retired Portuguese FIFA ref came to Vancouver about ten years ago. I asked him about encroachment on PKs and he told me that what he does is he makes sure the everyone is in the correct position before he blows his whistle. He lets the kick take place and from I can gather, what happens after the whistle, is very different from the Laws. He concentrates on the kicker and the ball. He clearly ignores encroachment and uses 'common sense'. If you noticed, in professional soccer, it is extremely rare that encroachment does NOT happen; it is routinely ignored. Well, moving off the goal line before the ball is kicked is clearly not allowed and this is also routinely ignored as Ref McHugh said. Somehow this makes it OK and has become the norm. I don't understand this logic especially in this case, when it was so obvious and there was an AR, whose job was to specifically indicate if the goalie moved off his line. The goalie actually took an unfair advantage by cutting down the angle by his illegal move and saved a goal. And no retake? Mindboggling! For your question, I would retake the the PK if the kicker used trickery by stopping for one full second before just before taking the kick.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi RussellPierluigi Collina, UEFA’s head of refereeing said at a press conference that the referee team should have gone with a retake. He is quoted to have said to the 12 remaining referees during a briefing ** Unfortunately, the goalkeeper moved forward, it was not spotted by the referee team** . He also explained it to journalists at the press conference by saying *It was a mistake in a match refereed well*This is a welcome development as it now supports the remaining referees in taking the strong decision of a caution and a retake. We will watch with interest in the games ahead.Now I have looked at it again and it is not much different from many other encroachment so that I see that are ignored. There was also forward momentum of the GK as well after the kick. I think that as it has become common place to ignore such that the same was done here.

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